There are four types of “Saturday Night Live” episodes: episodes where you’re legitimately excited about the host, episodes where you really like the musical guest, episodes where both the host and the musical guest seem to hold promise, and episodes where the expected quality of the episode is anyone’s guess.
If the show surrounding the variables is in good shape, none of this should matter: there will be some political satire, a few Bill Hader impressions, and your usual slew of Weekend Update jokes. However, right now the show is at the bottom of the barrel, leaning on fart jokes and Kenan Thompson more than I would have ever imagined just a year or two ago.

So it means that I’m tuning into "Saturday Night Live" tonight for Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”) and Jon Hamm only: if the rest of the show happens to pull together in his presence, then consider me pleasantly surprised.

If, however, it ends up the television comedy equivalent to Michael Bublé, then consider me destructively cynical.

I'd like to sit here and tell you that "Epitaph Two: The Return" is an unmitigated triumph, an episode of television that will singlehandedly push future generations to realize that "Dollhouse" is nothing less than a stellar 26-episode miniseries and one that will redeem even some of the series' weaker outings by revealing their place in the overall scheme. And, actually, it does some of that. It's a very, very good episode of television, notable for the fact that it looks like it was made with whatever pocket change Joss Whedon found in his couch. What's more, the script itself here is quite well done, bristling with heady ideas and a forward momentum that never lets up. But some of the episode's execution is off. Not so much that it ruins the experience but enough that this won't sit proudly alongside the "Angel" finale as one of the all-time greats.

[Full recap of Friday's (Jan. 29) series finale of "Dollhouse" after the break...]

Last week’s premiere of “Caprica” was a relative one: chances are, many of you that watched it might have already caught it via DVD in the time since its release last Spring. But tonight marks the start of the series good and proper with its first hour-long episode. It’s fitting that the title of this episode was “Rebirth.” After all, the theme of this week’s episode centered around alternative parent/child relationships in the wake of the train bombing. Dr. Phil would have a FIELD DAY in Caprica City, methinks.
Let’s look at the lost children of “Caprica,” one by one.

The ladies of Mystic Falls (who aren’t lucky enough to be dating a Salvatore) get turned down left and right this week on “The Vampire Diaries,” while Stefan, Elena, and Damon team up to track down the mysterious hooded vampire guy from last week. Best of all, Elena gets her first taste of female empowerment…and she kinda likes it!

Well, it’s the very first team episode, so I’m guessing there’s going to be hair pulling and seam ripping, because this crew is shaping up to be one dislikable bunch of wannabes. Even before we discover what the challenge for the day will be, it seems like everyone lines up to take a pot shot at Ping. Granted, she’s an easy target, what with a name like Ping and her buttless dress, but it seems a little early in the season for people to be this snide. Not that she was the only target. Jesse, who I hadn’t even realized was on the show up this point (yeah, memorable the guy is not) had to ask Jesus if his strategy for winning was to be in the bottom two week after week. Seriously, why not just smother him with a pillow, Jesse? Who put eau du jerkass in the communal body wash?

Deception. It’s what most “Heroes” fans thrust upon themselves to digest the show at this point in its run. While there have been some tolerable aspects to the “Redemption” volume (the Claire/Gretchen relationship, Emma, the notable lack of Suresh), in general the carnival plot simply hasn’t gone anywhere. A villain with a lack of discernable motivation, coupled with too many plots not directly tied to the big top, has led to a sprawling, disconnected mess in which the high points have been buried under three rings of muck.

As much as I enjoy a good lengthy "Chuck" recap, my current Sundance Film Festival-based time crunch may make this week's recap a smidge less in-depth than usual. With that in mind, I invite y'all to delve into whichever aspects of "Chuck vs. First Class" that I happen to gloss over in an effort to get to an evening screening (and possible procure hot food of some sort).

Fortunately, "Chuck vs. First Class" is a good episode with lots of funny and exciting bits. And how could it not be, coming from the pen (or computer keyboard) of series co-creator Chris Fedak?

After the 4-episode overload last week, it was nice to only have one episode of “24” this week to push the bounds of plausibility. Last week featured so much farfetched plot that it didn’t even register that Renee’s horror last season over Jack’s techniques makes absolutely no sense now that we know she was undercover with a Russian mob for several years prior to that. Took Hitfix’s Daniel Fienberg to point out that little nugget of inconsistency after I posted my recap. But hey, it’s hard to see the forest from the trees in the Shenanigans Forest that is this show.

But enough about the past, what happened tonight? Let’s get down to it.